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No, He’s Not Hitler—Yet. Trumpism is not Fascism—Yet. And while 63 MILLION AMERICANS voted for this guy, that is only 27 Percent of the voting-eligible population. There is plenty of resistance out there to make sure he doesn’t become Hitler and we don’t succumb to neo-fascism. Let’s get to work.

In a live interview with TODAY's Savannah Guthrie, Christopher Wylie, a former employee of British-based company Cambridge Analytica, says the company misused personal Facebook data of some 50 million people to help influence the 2016 presidential election. Wylie says the company met with former Trump campaign manager (and current outside adviser) Corey […]

Marine life is battling an unexpected enemy, lost fishing gear, also known as ghost gear. 705,000 tons of fishing gear are lost in the ocean every year. Mike Neill and his crew are trying to change that.

Do states have a moral right to exclude people from their territory? It might seem obvious that states do have such a right, but Sarah Fine questions this in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast. This episode of Philosophy Bites was sponsored by the Examining Ethics podcast from the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics at DePauw University. You can su […]

How do I know I'm not dreaming? This sort of question has puzzled philosophers for thousands of years. Eric Schwitzgebel discusses scepticism and its history with Nigel Warburton in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast. This episode of Philosophy Bites was sponsored by the Examining Ethics podcast from the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics at D […]

What is a robustly demanding good, and what has that got to do with friendship and love? Find out in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast in which Nigel Warburton interviews Princeton Professor Philip Pettit about this topic.

Philosophers talk about 'knowing how' and 'knowing what'. But what is involved in knowing a person? Katalin Farkas discusses this question with David Edmonds in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast. This episode was sponsored by the Examining Ethics podcast from the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics at DePauw University.

Are human beings fundamentally different from the rest of the animal world? Can what we essentially are be captured in a biological or evolutionary description? Roger Scruton discusses the nature of human nature with Nigel Warburton in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast.

The Hard Problem of consciousness is the difficulty of reconciling experience with materialism. In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast, in conversation with Nigel Warburton, Anil Seth, a neuroscientist, explains his alternative approach to consciousness,which he labels the 'Real Problem. Anil is a Wellcome Trust Engagement Fellow.

Why does apparently trivial ritual play such an important part in some ancient Chinese philosophy? Michael Puett, co-author of The Path, explains in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast. This episode of Philosophy Bites was sponsored by the Examining Ethics podcast from the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics at DePauw University. You can subscribe to […]

What is Art? That's not an easy question to answer. Some philosophers even think it can't be answered. Aaron Meskin discusses this question on this episode of Aesthetics Bites. Aesthetics Bites is a podcast series of interviews with top thinkers in the philosophy of art. It is a collaboration between the London Aesthetics Forum and Philosophy Bites […]

The process of dying can be horrible for many, but is there anything bad about death itself? The obvious answer is that deprives us of something that we might otherwise have experienced. But that leads to further philosophical issues...Shelly Kagan discusses some of these with Nigel Warburton in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast.

We certainly disagree about aesthetic judgments in a range of cases. But is anyone right? Is there no disputing about taste? Are all tastes equal? Elisabeth Schellekens Damman discusses disagreement about taste in this episode of Aesthetics Bites. Aesthetics Bites is a podcast series of interviews with top thinkers in the philosophy of art. It is a collabo […]

Cobalt used to be a byproduct of copper mining, used in everyday, boring stuff like tires and magnets. Now it's one of the most important and sought after metals on the periodic table. This has implications for big tech firms like Apple.

God’s In His Heaven And ObamaCare Will Soon Send You To Join Him, Buttsex Or Not

The year’s at the spring,And day’s at the morn;Morning’s at seven;The hill-side’s dew-pearled;The lark’s on the wing;The snail’s on the thorn;God’s in His heaven—All’s right with the world!

—Robert Browning

All’s right with the world alright.

Republicans have shut down the government and Fox “News” is doing what it is that Fox “News” does best.

I strolled past the Republican News Channel this morning and peeked through its fogged-up windows for a couple of minutes. What I saw was a man from the Heritage Foundation, who has written a book on Margaret Thatcher, explain why the Iron Lady would be aghast to even set her saintly peepers on ObamaCare! Yes, this man told Fox viewers that the private business- and free market-loving woman who presided over Great Britain’s genuinely socialist healthcare system would oppose a conservative-inspired scheme in which markets are used to bring in customers to private insurance companies! Only on Fox.

But the worst thing I saw through the fogged-up windows was none other than Betsy McCaughey, former Republican Lieutenant Governor of New York, who Fox used all morning to “explain” ObamaCare to the folks. Just to give you an idea what a bad idea it was to have McCaughey explain the Affordable Care Act to gullible, low-information Fox viewers, I bring you a recent headline from Wonkette:

Treeske

I never cease to be astonished at how demagoguery can flourish when, because of the internet, there has never been better access to information, but Faux News is the paradigm of how that happens. One would think that the people in charge there, people who probably call themselves journalists, would be aware of being manipulated, but I think it’s more subtle than that. All it takes is to buy into a self-serving meme and the rest falls into place. In this case, the meme is,

Any government program, like ObamaCare, that services the poor is by definition taking money from us who have “earned” it and giving it to those who haven’t “earned” it and don’t deserve it. If they deserved it, they wouldn’t be poor.

Ah, it goes down so very smoothly. It’s similar to the meme about the “free market”, as so eloquently described by Robert Reich in a column this morning. Conservatives promote the free market as something ” . . . natural and inevitable, existing outside and beyond government.” But of course, that’s not true at all. The free market is a pattern of exchange that exists within a framework of critical rules that are set up and regulated by government. Without those rules, Reich says, ” . . . we’re back to social Darwinism, where only the toughest and biggest survive.” And, obviously, the rules can be, and have been, subverted.

Your (his) point about the free market existing “within a framework of critical rules” is one that is admitted by all serious thinkers, since some form of government is needed to enforce contracts and protect property rights and so on. The problem is in the word “critical.” What you and I may see as critical rules, like, say, making sure unions are free to organize and people are free to join them without threats from their employer, most right-wingers see as burdens on business and restrictions on liberty, as they weirdly define liberty.

I’m afraid that in the foreseeable future, maybe forever, we will be fighting over just what those critical rules should be. It’s too bad we have to have a political party now that is willing to blow up the economy in order to “save” it.

I just discovered that ObamaCare forces my doctor to ask me about buttsex. Doc Benway’s already too fond of rubber gloves at it is. I hope you find time between meals to address this abnormal assault on respectable medical care. We the people already know that ObamaCare adds more grease to the slippery slope real Americans find themselves sliding down — down into the dark hole called Big Government socialism.

Please speak out about this aberrant insult to rural decency. We already know that Obama has been sticking it to us, but enough is enough. Talk about not passing the smell test.

I like very much your letter to Ozark Billy, although I wish you would have clarified that there is a proper time and place for an earnest inquiry into buttsex habits, it being understood that the inquisition should be conducted after the priest delivers his contraceptives-are-evil homily, and not a minute before.

Jim,
Several friends have shared with me their unsuccessful attempts to engage Billy. It appears one is lucky if a short form letter is eventually returned. Billy appears immune to Abe Lincoln’s famous observation: “You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all of the time”. Although Billy doesn’t really fool everyone, there are enough fools here in southwest Missouri to keep Billy in Congress.